Konkai: Living Between Two Worlds

by Mardia Stone

Konkai Stevens was a quiet ten-year-old when he was molested at school by an older male student. The pain of the experience devastated him emotionally and was the beginning of his confusion about his sexuality. Konkai ultimately embraced a homosexual lifestyle, and, because he took no precautions, eventually contracted HIV and died of AIDS in Boston, USA, at the age of 32. This memoir, written by his sister, is a narrative of the dynamics between Konkai and his family as they dealt with his sexual orientation and his illness while their country, Liberia, was being destroyed by a brutal civil war. Told with intimate detail, Konkai is a tragic story of searching for one’s place in life, of longing for love and acceptance, and of preparing to let go.

Genres: Liberia, Africa, Nonfiction, Memoir, The World

160 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 20, 2011

Reviews

[Fats]

Konkai is a wonderful story of a family dealing with the devasting effects of AIDS, told from a sisterly and African point of view. I enjoyed reading Konkai. I laughed and cried and identified with the family. The book is easy to read and once started it is hard to put down.

Konkai is not an aides story, but it is a story about aids and how this family was able to support their brother through goodtimes, bad times and low times as he struggled with the disease.

[Sue Kozlowski · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book as part of my quest to read a book written by every author in the world. This author grew up in Liberia.

Mardia Stone writes this book in 1991 - the story she tells took place in the early 1990's.
In 2001, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, brought "HIV/AIDS to world stage by calling a Special Session of the General Assembly to address the devastating global impact of the pandemic, particularly in Africa". Stone decides it is time to tell the story of her brother Konkai, who died of AIDS at the age of 32.

Her brother had been molested by a man when he was a child and he grew up gay. Konkai moved to Massachusetts and he lived the gay lifestyle while never taking precautions to prevent AIDS. His sister takes care of him until he dies of AIDS. Their father would not come and visit him when he was sick and it was devastating to Konkai.